Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a year filled with calm seas

and just enough breeze to fill your sails

Ken & Pat

Today in the harbour

Frantic activity by little Bonaparte gulls attracted a crowd to see what the fuss was about.

The dark area is thousands of fish!

Turns out to be a seal stirring up a school of (probably) herring.
More like, as Nora Lea said, "a university".
He swam through the school with his mouth open having a tasty snack and in the meantime, the waiting gulls dove in and cleaned up the strays.

Love the reflection in this one.....
Bonaparte gulls are so neat---tiny, and dive right under to get a fish.

Usually have it eaten by the time they surface

Changes

You may recall that I sent this picture shortly after we moved here. All the land across the road was wilderness and ideal blackberry picking country.
I took these pictures today to show you the difference.

11 houses are in the process of being built- 3 more to go. All sold we are told. Many buyers are local people down-sizing. The houses are selling for about $270,000 without basements or crawl spaces-underfloor heating though.

I have been directing people to our house for months by telling them to turn at the bulldozer......

"Race starts"-or 'Why I'm on shore"

Blake Hoffert sent this picture of his "Aiolos" at the start of a race.

Ken sailed with him 2 weeks ago, out to Rebecca Rocks (about 5-6 miles) and back again.

It's a large new racer, with dacron sails, made for this type of thing. Needs a crew of 6 in a serious race

Ken loved it.

Yesterday was very calm, we motored around the strait and followed a whale which was heading south. I can't find anything on the Internet showing a similar dorsal fin.

No camera of course-we'll try again today, then time for the tarp again as we prepare for rain.

the mother of all windstorms

I've never tried to upload a video clip, but we'll see if it works. They are huge-like this one is 26MB
I'll add a picture, just in case it doesn't work.

Beach Gardens is a small beach where we walk 2-3 times a week, but after last night's wind it is a sight to behold-the wind seems to be dying down and word is it's going to switch now from south east to northwest.

Lots of fences down and several trees-power was out for a few hours, but by the news reports, the island was hit harder than we were.

The boat survived, but the tarp didn't-oh well...

How did Kenzie get to be 16 years old???

A surprise birthday party was apparently enjoyed by all.

We can't understand how this happened-we certainly aren't old enough to have a 16 year old grandson, are we?????

Try to look at this without smiling

It's fall and my thoughts turn to knitting.

I found this pattern in a local yarn store and although I don't even know a baby,

I have to make it.

Auntie Evelyn is helping me.

She was the best knitter before her death a few years ago, and she sticks around to check on us.

(mostly Linda and me who seem to need her help a lot)

So far she has told me my tension was way wrong and made me rip out an entire sleeve and start again....she's a perfectionist, but it's nice to have her help.

She was the only person who could get away with calling me 'Trishy"

e-mails from grandkids...

Grandkids are well-named

when i first saw the pics i was like woah it really is a pink dolphin and then i thought i am so lucky to have this e-mail becouse i dont know who else would get it so thank you so much for it and i am never goin to delete this e-mail ever well TA TA FOR NOW

michellie


Dear Grammy I am having not such a good day. I might have strep thought and I am on this really disgusting medicine. My thought is very soar and I sometimes get headaches. My ears hurt sometimes and yeah so how are you doing?
Love Jamie

Just one of the gang....

Totally accepted by fellow birds and Powell River-ites, this guy is seen daily marching along with his buddies, cleaning up the neighbourhood.

There are sure lots of crows here.

-seems like feeding crows (cat food, I hear) is a pass time for some people.

Go figure.

The word is that a whole family of these white crows was born here a few years ago- but I think this is the only one left.

Snow geese?

This isn't a very good picture but there are many, many flocks of these birds overhead these days heading south

-I think they are geese not swans but they are so high it's hard to tell. You can sure hear them though

Thanksgiving in Victoria

It's kind of inspirational to see your kid run a marathon for the second year in a row, realizing she's the mother of 3......

Lesley and her friend Shannon, also the mother of 3, arrived in Victoria Saturday afternoon, ran the marathon-26 km on Sunday and flew home Monday morning.

Ken and I were taxi drivers and cheering section.

Here they are with about 7 km left to go.

They have just climbed a hill which must have just about killed them all. The first half was just cloudy and then the heavens opened. Ken & I were soaked to the skin. but we stayed and cheered them on....

Crossing the finish line together.

then the tears....

Shannon's mom died recently of cancer and this run was for her....

Dinner at Ric's Grill.

The hostess was a hoot-made pompoms out of garbage bags and made a big fuss over them,

After they left, we stayed another day and enjoyed Victoria.

Sea life

Yesterday we steered the sailboat towards some splashing out in the water.

Turned out to be about 50-60 Pacific White-sided dolphins. We cut the motor and sat as they cavorted around us -almost close enough to touch.

No camera of course!!!! I didn't take this picture but this is what we saw.

So today we tried again-camera at the ready but nary a dolphin in sight.

Anyway, lots of sea birds back for the winter from wherever they go.

These are mostly surf scoters.

Lots of cormorants on the hulks-sunning themselves on every ledge on hulk #8, and on the anchor chains

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Last weekend

Maiden voyage out to Powell Lake-

Bailey is thinking"Oh no, not another boat!"
Lu & Gray from Kelowna were here for a couple days and we showed them the sights. This is Lund-a lot more peaceful now that fall is here.

A large paddle wheeler from Juneau heading south for repairs.
We were told that this one ran aground in Alaska this summer.
It was passing Powell River by the time we got back there.

Devon goes to preschool

4 years old, colour-coordinated to boot.

She looks 16

Powell River Silver Dragons

Since we forgot our own camera,

we are relying on others and they just get better and better.....

Winning

This is our boat out in front in one of the races-

For those of you who live elsewhere take note of the setting in Nanaimo harbour

-what a beautiful place.

Down to the left in a huge yacht club, and to the right, walkways, shops,

commuter planes, more harbour, very people-friendly place.

The land to the right is Newcastle Island I think, accessible only by water, and the mountains in the background are the mainland, behind the Sunshine Coast and Powell River.

Thanks to Shirley Haswell for this picture.

BC Seniors Games-Gold Medalists

Wow-what a day on Thursday-

we finished the day in first place in our division.

That's us in the middle-Powell River Silver Dragons.

Ken is at the back and I'm in the middle somewhere.

Gold is good.

Remembering Teddie Benson

The gentle giant

With full hearts we will remember Teddie:

-exploring all the rainforest trails around his new home.

-knowing that it's best to lie down in a creek or a lake to get a drink so your head is at the right level.

-watching tolerantly while his silly friend Bailey mooches along the beach eating everything in sight.

-being sure that a canoe is no place for a dog

-walking along the beach like a regal lion looking for the absolutely perfect oyster shell to give to Nora Lea....

Miss you, Ted

Ken, Pat & Bailey

Sailing School in Powell River

These pictures came to the sailing club attached to a thankyou message from a happy parent.

This was a weeklong camp,sponsored by the sailing club. Instructors and boats came from Vancouver.

We watched all 22 of them one day on Powell Lake while I was fishing and Ken was picking berries and they were having a ball.

Ken wanted to join them but he was a bit big!

Guess how old these kids were--ages 6-10....

Blackberry Festival

Last Friday was the culmination of a week-long Blackberry Festival.

Marine Ave is closed to traffic all evening and organizations and whoever wants to places booths, sells everything you can think of until about 11:00pm. A great family event.

this photo from the local paper shows just a portion of the street

-Ken heard an estimate of 10,000 people.

I was at the dragon boat booth and Ken was at the Lions booth which sold out by 9:00pm

Sailpast tonight

Here we are out with the sailing club-and not a breath of wind.

We were supposed to cross a start line, go round a couple of bouys twice, but no such luck-great fun anyway followed by good fellowship and beer at the pub.

That's us 4th from the right sitting, not moving.

Thanks to Bensons for the great shots.

Fishing on Duck Lake

- another adventure with Bensons.

Nora Lea took this picture-it looks like I'm reeling Ken in.

If you look closely, you can see Bailey in the bow of the canoe.

The trout were laughing at us and our worms today-jumping all around us though.

more grandkids

Ball kids

Derek just sent these pictures of the girls-had to share....

Are you tired of sunsets yet???

Aug 5th-we went fishing after supper-no bites but the seals were following us so that's a good sign.

Seems like people are catching rock cod and ling cod right now as well as salmon.

One guy told us we have to get an 'army truck'

-took us a minute to realize that's the name of a hootchie that is popular right now....

9:20PM

from the deck...

This week

Miss Lions Club in the Sea Fair parade. Every year high school girls are chosen by local service clubs as youth ambassadors for the year. April has been with Lions all year, attending lots of functions, meetings, learning public speaking etc.

This week we slept overnight on the boat at Sturt Bay on Texada Island. Met lots of nice people, a few not-so-nice mosquitos, slept very little, but it was fun.
This is SeaFair weekend, so we took part in the parade on Saturday.That's me fishing in the front of the boat.
We are both on the very first BC Senior's Games Dragon Boat team-the "Silver Dragons"-a demo sport this year in Nanaimo.
Ken is finding out that paddling in unison is harder than it looks.Today maybe we will explore another trail we just heard about, maybe stop at Mrs Clancy's berry farm to buy fresh eggs and pick some blueberries.

The blackberries are nearly ready.

A bomb threat on BC Ferries is causing havoc leaving Vancouver-seems nobody is interested in bombing us.

The Patriots

For a year now, our flag has hung on Tony's clothesline pole, usually wrapped in a tangle around the line.

Today the guys decided to change all that by adding an extension.

This involved 2 ladders, moving Tony's boat, bringing in a utility trailer (for added height) a trip to the plumbing supply store. You will notice that Ken is staying close to the ground, since ladders are not his favourite device.

Tony on the other hand seems quite at home, but firmly trussed.

All done, and ready for Tony's Italian flag should Italy win any sporting event....

And high enough to be seen from Comox...